The 2004 Georgia Navigator Cup will on July 3-4 at Smithgall Woods/Dukes Creek, in conjunction with the USOF Convention. Follow this link for details.

Georgia Navigator Cup 2003
By Laurie Searle

Throughout the MLK weekend, hundreds of orienteers passed by the colorful t-shirt quilt near the registration desk. Many paused to touch one of the 10 quilted blocks, recalling their past GA Navigator Cup (GNC) experience. Others boasted of their own GNC t-shirt collection, which sounded as impressive as their tall tales. Still more looked forward to their first A-Meet and I proudly thought, "They've come to the right place."

The 2003 Georgia Navigator Cup is the 11th consecutive A-Meet hosted by the Georgia Orienteering Club. This year's event featured the GA Navigator Cup, U.S. Interscholastic Orienteering Championship, SE Trail-O Championship, Extreme-O, and more at Sweetwater Creek State Park in Lithia Springs, GA, Jan 18-20.

A Tribute to GAOC Volunteers

Hosting the Interscholastic Champs presented a special challenge due to its soaring popularity over the last few years. Early on we considered paying volunteers in order to attract enough to support the anticipated 600 competitors, but so many "old-timers" wouldn't consider taking money, we developed an incentive program instead.

Each volunteer received the following freebies in exchange for working at least two days: event registration, t-shirt, local meet coupon, raffle ticket (for the annual raffle), Saturday night dinner, and commemorative pin. 

We also augmented our normal volunteer staff with volunteers from other groups. All total we had over 70 volunteers! These dedicated folks really stepped up to the challenge and GAOC was glad to show its appreciation.

Day 1 - Steep and Challenging

Saturday's competitors woke to 14 degree temperatures and clear skies but by the time they arrived at the Start, temperatures were just right for climbing the steep hills on the east side of the park.

Sam Smith was the course setter and official observer this year. He set longer courses on Day 1 that challenged competitors to choose between direct route options with lots of climb or faster route options that required navigational expertise to contour around the hills. Sam stationed himself at the top of a hill to observe orienteers and was a bit surprised at what he saw. 

"A lot of upper-level competitors did unnecessary climb, running up and over the hill instead of contouring around," he observed. "And the yellow course competitors seemed less skilled (that he anticipated). Many turned left instead of right for their control, as if they were holding their map "straight up" like a driving map instead of orienting the map in the direction of travel."

Once competitors finished their A-Meet courses, they were treated to one of Bill Farrell's famous Trail-O courses set on the shore of Sparks Reservoir. Bill set about a dozen control clusters for this year's competition and Pete Curtis  took first place, while Walter Siegenthaler took home the SE Champs coveted orange T-shirt.   

Day 2 - Shorter and More Technical 

Sunday's competition took competitors to the west side of the park, which offered shorter but more technical courses. On lower-level courses, competitors could choose between longer trail routes or shorter more direct options, which required more navigational skills. On upper-level courses, competitors had at least one long leg that could make or break their finish times. Overall, times were fast and results were calculated in record time for the 2pm Results Ceremony. 

Day 3 - Extreme Fun

Over 70 competitors stayed over on Monday for the now famous Extreme-O, hosted by Mal Harding and Chuck & Linda Ferguson. This year's competitors were treated to an extraordinary "cootie factor" as they crawled through muddy culverts and dank caves, climbed a cargo net up a steep embankment, navigated a string-o through a swamp, inched across a rope bridge over a creek, and waded through waist-deep mud past a plastic alligator.   

Making Memories 

All throughout the weekend, professional photographer Eric Beach was on hand snapping photos of competitors and volunteers in action. He captured over 600 snap shots, which are available for sale on the GAOC website at www.gaorienteering.org.

As for myself, I have another t-shirt to add to the quilt and more great memories of another wonderful Georgia Navigator Cup. 

What's Up for Next Year?

GAOC invites you to attend our 2004 GA Navigator Cup on July 3-4 in Cleveland, GA, as part of the USOF Convention week June 26-July 4, 2004, hosted by the Carolina Orienteering Klub and the Georgia Orienteering Club. 

Notes from a Meet Director HAM
by Laurie Searle

Back in 2001, my husband Sam Smith encouraged me to get an amateur radio license. At first I thought I'd have problems passing the test, but the FCC makes it easy by publishing the answers to the multiple choice test and not requiring Morse Code for the Technician's license.

What's this got to do with orienteering? Well up until that point, GAOC mostly used cheap walkie-talkies to communicate between the Start, Finish, HQ, and Field at its A-Meets. But since walkie-talkies are only good for short ranges they weren't very effective.

Once I got my license and joined the ranks of amateur radio operators who call themselves hams, Sam and I could communicate at further distances during our A-Meets. Our network grew when we discovered a few other hams in our club, so we started using ham radio to aid our search & rescue efforts. Our plan went something like this: three hams drove the perimeter of the park, while two hams search in the woods. As overtime competitors were found, the ham would communicate to the others and the finish line.

This year, GAOC improved its communication plan 10 fold. Steve & Robin Shannonhouse, Bill Farrell, and Martha Carr all got amateur radio licenses and we engaged the South Fulton Amateur Radio Emergency Service volunteers to run a Net Control at our Meet Headquarters. All radio communication passed through the Net Control operator who either relayed the message to the appropriate station -- such as Start calling Meet Director -- or recorded the message for later transmission if the station was busy.   

I can't tell you what an improvement this made in our overall meet administration. Our crew chiefs got an immediate answer to their questions, rather than having to send a valuable volunteer to search for the meet director; we could position observers in the woods who recorded competitors as they passed by so we knew exactly where to look for folks; and we could move volunteers around as one station got less busy and another picked up.

I highly recommend the use of amateur radio operators for your next orienteering A-Meet. And if you can't find a local amateur radio club to help you out, why not become a ham yourself? It's easy, lots of fun, and will greatly improve your meet administration. 

For information on amateur radio, go to the American Radio Relay League website at: www.arrl.org.